The Guardian reported recently that bloggers and internet pundits are exerting a "disproportionately large influence" on society. So, six weeks after I retired from full-time employment in education, I've arrived. First off, thanks to Seb for inviting this guest contribution - and for establishing and maintaining this extremely useful and accessible mailing.
Retirement has given me an opportunity to do lots of things, including to reflect a bit on what's happened to education during my time, and how technology and e-learning have come to play increasing (albeit disputed) roles. I started teaching in 1968, spent most of my career in further education colleges, and ended up with the then Learning and Skills Development Agency. Now I'm working part-time and finding more time for things I enjoy and am involved in otherwise.
My big introduction to technology was very privileged for a classroom teacher: in 1979 I was seconded to the then Council for Educational Technology (one of Becta's predecessors) and worked for the inspirational Geoffrey Hubbard. Apart from learning a lot about education and about 'technologies' (including - on a later secondment - becoming an early Apple Mac user), the first big lesson was that the core mission of education and training (if I didn't know it already) is for the student. (And here I confess to one of many prejudices: I can't stand the word 'learner'. Student, please, and teacher.) The second lesson? That 'educational technology' is only incidentally about technology; the real ed. tech. is a systematic approach to teaching and learning. From those, all else follows.
But does it? The dangerous zealots of Neo Labor are busy sacrificing socially progressive education on their faith-based altar of liberal economics. Following the links in the previous sentence pretty much says it all for me. But most readers of this post will be involved in 'technology' and we've seen this flag flown by government and its friends to represent the boys with toys. E-learning will give us 'personalisation'. Well, possibly. But see elsewhere in Fortnightly Mailing - and worry about whether personalisation really means privatisation (where not just economic capital but social capital, values, emotions and finer feelings are also privatised, commodified and debased). Shouldn't e-learning rather be enlisted to encourage particpation and achievement and - a word we forget at our peril - solidarity.
How long is a blog? Is this one a rant? Ho, hum. I hope you will join a discussion anyway. Meanwhile - discovering that "The Wikimedia Foundation servers are currently experiencing technical difficulties" it's probably time for me to leave my desk for a while.
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